Wacko of the Week -- 08/11/07

Patrick Wurtzel

Some people, as an old boss of mine used to say, live and learn, but others just live. Here is a politician in a small Michigan community who has more money than integrity. He tried once to use his money to buy a place for our Ten Commandments in the county court house. (This is known as "coveting that which is thy neighbor's.") He offered $10,000 out of his pocket to pay for it. He'd make them of granite he said. (Why, God himself only used sandstone so that Moses could smash them! This is known as "making unto thyself a graven image.")

The County turned his proposal down. But here he comes back again with the same proposal all decked out in a different argument. His different argument is that the Ten Commandments are a historic document, not a religious one, so we should put them in the Freedom Shrine. They are, he claims, the basis of all law. (This position is also known as "bearing false witness.")

We haven't heard this gentleman offer to have the Declaration of Independence carved into marble. Or even General McAuliffe's one-word Freedom Shrine entry, "Nuts!" What do you suppose that means?

There are not many more egregious ways to cause social disharmony in a community than to push one's own religious ikons ahead of everyone else's. People who do that are deliberate trouble makers.

Any elected official still stuck on this stale old theme, especially in a progressive community, deserves to be laughed out of office. Let's offer him a new position: Wacko of the Week.